Time for cool Italian heads - and slide-rules

Christian Vieri's rant at the Italian media on Sunday was misdirected.

Instead of telling Italian journalists he was more of a man than they would ever be, they might have been more impressed if he had told them he was a better mathematician.

That's because cool people with a head for figures will be needed today to determine whether or not Italy advance to the Euro 2004 quarter-finals following their Group C match with already eliminated Bulgaria in Guimaraes.

Italy will qualify for the last eight as long as they beat Bulgaria and Sweden and Denmark, who meet in Porto, do not draw 2-2 or higher. Other scenarios are possible depending on how the two matches finish.

Italy's cause is not helped by suspensions to Francesco Totti, Gennaro Gattuso and skipper Fabio Cannavaro and yesterday coach Giovanni Trapattoni also faced an injury doubt over midfielder Cristiano Zanetti.

Zanetti, who played in the opening 0-0 draw with Denmark but did not feature in the 1-1 draw with Sweden on Friday, missed training on Sunday with a muscle problem.

Vieri, who marched out of Sunday's news conference following his protest at media coverage, did not join the in-house training match as he is suffering pain in his left knee.

Vieri worked out in the gym and had a massage. He is not believed to be at risk for the Bulgaria match that Italy must win to have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

Matteo Ferrari and Marco Materazzi are the two main options to replace Cannavaro in the centre of defence, while Gattuso's slot in midfield could go to Stefano Fiore or Mauro Camoranesi.

Bulgaria, already eliminated after defeats against Sweden and Denmark, will be without captain Stilian Petrov and centre-back Rosen Kirilov who are suspended - and almost certainly injured defender Ivailo Petkov.

Petkov has not trained since suffering a thigh injury in Friday's 2-0 loss to Denmark in Braga, while fellow defender Vladimir Ivanov is nursing a sore hamstring but has a better chance of being fit.

"Ivanov should be okay," coach Plamen Markov told Reuters. "Petkov is more doubtful but it's not impossible, he could make it, we'll have to see."

Petrov was sent off seven minutes from the end of the match in Braga where Bulgaria picked up seven yellow cards, reacting angrily to a refereeing decision they were unhappy with.

Probable teams

Italy: Buffon; Panucci, Nesta, Materazzi (Ferrari), Zambrotta; Fiore (Camoranesi), Pirlo, Perrotta; Cassano, Del Piero, Vieri.

Bulgaria: Zdravkov; Ivanov, Pazhin, Zagorcic, Stoyanov; Peev, M. Petkov, Hristov, M. Petrov; Jankovic, Berbatov.

Referee: Valentin Ivanov (Russia).

On TV: RaiUno - 8.45 p.m.